BBG Broadcasters Honored

November 10, 2011

Washington, D.C., Nov. 10, 2011 — Alhurra won the People’s Choice Award for “Best Coverage of Democracy Uprisings” and Radio Farda host Farshid Manafi was named “International Radio Personality of the Year,” as the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) announced its global media excellence awards in London.

Other Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) honorees included Voice of America for its coverage of the Egyptian Revolution and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) for a report on violence against women in Southern Kyrgyzstan.

“We’re honored that the AIB has recognized the high quality programming produced by BBG entities around the world. From satire in Iran to breaking news coverage in Egypt, BBG products are engaging audiences in strategically important parts of the world,” said the director of the International Broadcasting Bureau Richard Lobo who oversees the day to day operations of the Agency.

Alhurra took home the AIB/Yahoo! Maktoob People’s Choice award for its coverage of the Egyptian revolution. Online voters named Alhurra’s coverage the best of the six finalists which included Al Jazeera English, Deutsche Welle, Press TV, NDTV and France 24.

Manafi hosts the popular satire show “Pasfarda,” which reaches an audience of 500,000 every weeknight on Radio Farda, RFE/RL’s Persian-language service. Manafi — who like all of his Radio Farda colleagues is officially banned from the Iranian airwaves — uses his show to skewer political and social mores in the country and to lampoon its leaders.

Voice of America was highly commended in the category Clearest Coverage of a Single News Event – Radio for its coverage of the Egyptian revolution. The judges said VOA reporting “brought the sense of hope among young protestors in Cairo alive.”

RFE/RL’s Janyl Chytyrbaeva’s was highly commended in the category Investigative Documentary – Radio for her report “Invisible Women of Osh,” which focused on the victims of gang rape during ethnic violence in Southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010. The judges called it “a story that definitely needed to be told, both shocking and highly revealing.”